Fallen Russian soldier caught on barbed wire on the Eastern Front, ca. 1915
Fallen Russian soldier caught on barbed wire on the Eastern Front, ca. 1915 The following is excerpts of 21-year-old Danish-German soldier Johannes Jessen's account of his experiences on the Eastern Front in early May 1915. Translated by myself: ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ "On one of the first days of May, the Russians began showering us with shells. We ran like mice from one end to the other to save our bacon. I had placed myself well behind some large planks, but suddenly I hurried away, and when I returned it was all wrecked by a large caliber shell. Later in the afternoon, a comrade and I ran into a dug-out which was still intact, but shortly after we deemed it too dangerous as well. As we exited, Karlemann crawled inside and was killed by a direct hit, which destroyed the dug-out. We were constantly on guard since as soon as the heavy artillery would cease they would storm our positions - that we knew. They fired all day long and when it got dark they came; our listening post hurried back...